Thursday, July 7, 2011

Tip pruning by teenagers

One afternoon last week I left home to run a few errands, but not before stopping to admire the Eryngium agavifolium closest to the driveway and it’s tall, straight bloom spike. Upon returning home the first thing I saw was this… Lest you think it just got top heavy here are the marks where someone tried to break it. These stems are tough characters…not easily torn, but easily broken. Going back to investigate the damage to the Eryngium is when I noticed there was gravel kicked all over the sidewalk, this was the work of the under 20 crowd for sure.

The chief gravel disperser is usually under 10, but hopefully there weren’t any under 10 year-olds walking the sidewalk all by themselves (just because a parent is with them doesn’t stop the under 10’s from messing with the gravel, no they kick and throw and occasionally the parent will scold “don’t do that!” but never, ever, do they make them actually put it back) so this particular culprit it had to be an over 10 and on-their-own teenager, because no parent would let their child repeatedly break and pull leaves from someone’s garden, right?

It didn’t stop with the Eryngium, no next I noticed a Kniphofia leaves pulled and scattered around. But even worse was the tip pruning to my baby Arctostaphylos ‘Austin Griffiths.” Looking out the kitchen window in the morning I’ve been admiring the bright green new growth, now pieces of it were lying around the garden. My Manzanita was tip pruned by a teenager. Okay, on the “bright side” it could have been much worse…really I got off easy. There are tall Yucca and Hesperaloe blooms that could have been abused. Not to mention the Agaves, I would cry if I saw them maliciously broken. No, all-in-all what happened was nothing to compared to what could have been. And that’s the part that could keep me awake at night. (no, I didn't stage that last photo, that's exactly how I found it)

21 comments:

  1. That's so horrible! I hope it doesn't continue. I've gardened in a lot of very public spaces, but so far have been spared vandalism. I hope this is a one time event for you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. OMG...that makes me so mad...there's nothing quite as disheartening as the careless destruction of your property...especially when it's something you've been watching and waiting for. Norms always jokes after the (luckily few) times this has happened, that I'll be sitting on our porch at night with a shotgun! I kind of wish there was a way to have a water pistol in the garden that would soak people who got too close ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh dear, worse even than deer...and the deer are a lot cuter.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jeesh, too bad they couldn't have just TP'd you and been done with it-toilet paper may be messy but at least it doesn't break anything.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Why is it that people think they have the right to do things like that. A neighbor down the street put a sign in their flowerbeds asking people not to pick the poppies. Luckily, I never had the problem....

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have you considered a small fence? If it were me, it would be imperative. I get dog poop on my lawn and deer nibblings but I don't have anything of serious value in my front garden. If I did, there'd be hell to pay. :) I hope this is the end of your neighborhood mishaps.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm so sorry. That really stinks. I hope they poked an eye out while doing it. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have a picket fence that spares me so much of that compared to my neighbors. Though once I did find a kid ripping a picket off of the fence, while his mother just continued walking with him. I yelled, "give me my fence back!" and spent the winter rehabilitating the fence.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Terrible - no excuse for that at all. The Manzanita really bugs me since they are not so easy to grow. No repentance, and may someone's Agave x 'Meat Hook' find the culprit when unsuspecting.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Greensparrow, since it was a week ago now that it happened I've got a bit more perspective but when I came home I was instantly in a "People are STUPID and MEAN" mood and wanted to move to the country. Then the insane war zone of the 4th of July that followed was almost enough to push me over the edge.

    Scott, I thought of you and your plucked blossom...it's just so evil. I would LOVE to some how rig a string that comes up and trips them as the walk on. Or maybe a bird that shits on their head!!!

    ricki, yes!

    ks, do kids still do that?

    Beech, I was hesitant to plant an agave in the front garden for this very reason. They are so fabulous that I was afraid the temptation would be too much (knocking on wood...).

    Grace, there was a park at the end of the street my house in Spokane was on too...god how I hated the dogs. I would have to go on a major poop scoop before I could mow the lawn! Since our front slopes away from the house Andrew wanted to build it up in the front and create a wall against the sidewalk. I wanted to maintain the slope for drainage and because I didn't want a mini-fortress. It's times like this that I wish he would have won the argument.

    Heather, ha! Me too!

    Sara, are you serious!!!??? His mom let him do that!? Wow.

    ReplyDelete
  11. DD, sorry I missed you! You know I suppose in a bit of cosmic justice that very afternoon Sean Hogan (Cistus) gave me a couple of rooted cuttings of two Manzanita that he is propagating. I'm trying them out in my garden to see how they do. So even though I lost a few tips of one I planted early in the spring I did come home with 2 babies to plant. (again that's perspective I've gained from a week to think about it...I wasn't so level headed right after the fact).

    ReplyDelete
  12. Maybe it's from living in England for so long,but I love the mini fortress...fences, bricks walls, thick hedgerows... not that I'm anti social !

    ReplyDelete
  13. Looks a little bit like my backyard where the kids hangout. My two year old pulls at anything that looks tender, or he'll whack it with a toy. The other day I caught him falling on a small shrub, on purpose!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Indeed Loree, we have a couple TP's every year on my block, though they are paltry affairs compared with the TP's perpetrated by my friend George and I back in the 60's. And I must say that we were always fiddling with plants when we walked home from school every day--elementary school, and Catholic kids to boot. Someday I'll do a post on what we did to the neighborhood Papyrus-we were really dreadful..

    ReplyDelete
  15. Interesting post, a well documented crime scene. Tis always a shame to see something happen to a bloom or growth tip in the midst of watch it grow. Thus is gardening i suppose, its good to be optimistic in these moments. Looking back at my youth it was so much fun tromping through the forest destroying things.... A strange time indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  16. This is UNACCEPTABLE! Perhaps you need to stake the attack pug in the front yard to protect the plants when you are not home!

    ReplyDelete
  17. As a parent of a six year old, I am amazed by what parents will allow their children to do to other people's yards. We have a 4year old culprit in our neighborhood, who could do all this damage with her parents watching. It is craziness. I am sorry about your garden. So frustrating!

    ReplyDelete
  18. linda, I love the look too, but in other peoples gardens.

    Ryan, and just think you invited these little plant destroyers into your life!!!

    ks, wow...I really had no idea that was still going on. So you're a Papyrus abuser huh? Can't wait to hear about it...

    Nat, "a well documented crime scene" funny...

    D+N, now that would be funny! She would certainly keep the neighborhood in order. Nobody would dare even walk down our side of the street!

    Three on grove, so what do you think? Have these bad parents never tended a garden? Do they not realize that people actually care about their plants?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oh no, garden vandalism is so disheartening. Those poor, innocent plants!

    My 3-year-old nephew came over a couple of weeks ago, headed straight for the stock-tank pond, and began ripping out handfuls of water lily leaves. What possesses kids to do such things, I wonder. But at least his mother instantly stopped him.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Parents are so oblivious.

    We go to a public dog park that has been getting improvements.

    Like trees! For shade! In Phoenix!
    Great improvements.

    But they are just babies, now. I had to walk over and tell a kid - "Please don't break the branches off the trees" right in front of his parents, who first gave me the stink eye, but then called him away from the tree he was breaking.

    WTF people? I just don't understand.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Also, you might try a sign with a diamond back rattler on it stating 'Beware of Attack Snake'

    Might give any Harry Potter fan pause, anyway?

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Comment moderation is on (because you know: spam), I will approve and post your comment as soon as possible!